Slicing machine



Oct. 4, 1932. c HJELTE 1,881,189

SLICING MACHINE Filed Aug. 6, 1951 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 g'woento'a M. c. HJELTE 1,881,189

SLICING MACHINE Oct. 4, 1932.

Filed Aug. 6, 1931 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 M. C. HJELTE SLICING MACHINE Filed Aug. 6, 1951 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Ogt. 4, 1932. M. c. HJELTE SLICING MACHINE Filed Aug. 6, 1931 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 HH I jwral M 4 m2 U 1 j K we f 3 Patented @ct. 4, 12 32 Cir ' on an enlarged scale. 7

sra'rfss ATE T OFFICE MARSHALL O. HJ'ELTE, OF HONOLULU, TERRITORY OF HAWAII, ASSIGNOR TO HAWAIIAN PINEAPPLE COMPANY, LIMITED, or HONOLULU, HAWAII, A 00320- BATION OF HAWAII SLICING MACHINE- Application filed August 6, 1931, Serial No 555,585.

Y The invention relates to certain improvementsin slicing machines of the general character of that shown in Patent No. 1,519,158, December 16, 1924:, and has for its object'to provide such a machine with means for delivering the sliced arti'clesfrom the machine with the slicesthereof in parallel facial abutment, thereby facilitating the packing of the sliced articles in substantially the same shape in which they were fed to the machine, said improvements also including means for actuating the mechanism feeding the articles to the cutting or slicing mechanism at substantially the same rate of speed as that in which the discharge belt'or packing conveyor is operated, so that there is no tendency of the slices becoming separated due to changes in speed of travel thereof; the improved machine alsoincluding the disposition of the'main elements of the drivi'ng'mechanism below the slicing apparatus and enclosed within a suitable casing associated with the supporting frame, whereby the driving mechanism will be protected, but

will, nevertheless-"be readily accessible for adjustment and repair. The invention is illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, in which 1 is a side elevation of the machine. Fig.2 is a plan view thereof. j

Fig. 3 is a detail View of the intermittently operated feed conveyor.

Fig. 41 is a fragmentary sectional elevation Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail of one of the supporting brackets for the feed chain.

Fig. 6 is a similar view of the companion bracket showing the relation of the feed chain to the discharge member.

Fig. 7 is a sectional elevation v of part of the driving mechanism. I

Fig; 8 is a perspective view of the tubular discharge member. I 1 Fig. 9 is a horizontal section through the main gear casing.

' Fig. 10 is a section on line '1010 of Fig. 9. 7 Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates the frameor standard 'ofthe machine provided withan upper frame section 2, which latter carries the slicing mechanism, the intermittent feed chain associated therewith and the tubular discharge member.

Supported on a suitable bracket 3 attached to the main frame 1 is an electric motor 4 for operating the machine, said motor driving the main shaft 6 of the machine through chain and sprocket gearing 5, the sprocket 5 being adapted to be coupled and uncoupled with respect to the main shaft by a clutch 7 of any appropriate form. The main shaft 6 is mounted in a bearing in a gear casing l preferably-formed as an integral part of the main frame 1. Fast to the inner end of the shaft 6 is a pinion meshing with gear 11 on countershaft 12, which latter carries a pinion 13 meshing with gear 14 on a second countershaft 15, said shaft having secured thereto a spiral gear and carrying on one end the sprocket 16 and on the opposite end sprockets and 91.

The sprocket 16 drives through chain 17, two sprockets 21, 21' mounted on vertically spaced shafts 19 and 20, which shafts carry the driving drums 22, 22, which operate the discharge conveyor or packing belt 23.

The spiral gear 30 meshes with a spiral gear 31 fast to a vertical shaft 32 journaled in bearings in a generally cylindrical section of the gear casing. Fast to the shaft 32 is an intermittent motion driving gear 34 having helical teeth on half of its periphery and a single circumferential tooth or rib on the other half, said gear meshing with a helical driven gear 35 on countershaft 35, on the outboard end of which is secured a sprocket 36. The vertical shaft 32 is provided at its top with a bevel gear 40, which meshes with a similar gear 11 on shaft 43' journaled in bearings formed in the top frame section 2,

said shaft 43 carrying a rotary cutter 44 of the same general type as illustrated in the patent aforesaid, which cutter cooperates with a slottedtubular head 15 also similar ent, the relation of the cutter and head being such that the cutter rotates continuously, the

knives traversing the slots in the head during to that employed in the machine of said pat- As inthemachine of the patent aforesaid, the articles to be sliced are delivered intermittentlyto the interior of the head where they are held stationaryduring the slicing operation, the intermittent feeding of the artides and the discharge of thesame from the head, afterslicing, being effected by a feed, chain of the same general type as that illustratedin the said patent, special provision being made to drive the chain during its "movement at-thesame' rate'of speedas that of the delivery belt or conveyoru23. The feed 1 chain 62 is provided with'pusher arms 63 spaced at regular intervals and serving to move the articles to be sliced fromthe preliminaryfeedjtrough 46'into the slotted tubular head 45. The chain 62 is guided by sprocket v 60 carried by a stud mounted on bracket 59,

a sprocket 61 carried by the upper frame sec-V tion 2 and atensioning sprocket 54 carried by an adjustable support 52 mounted on a bracket also carried by the upper portion of the frame; The. chain is driven by a sprocket 55 provided with a number of teeth equal to the number-of links in each section I ofthe: chain between the pusher arms 63 carried bysaid chain, sothat one revolution of the sprocket 55' moves the chain through a distance equal to that between two success ve pusher arms 63. I

' ,The shaft" 56 bearing sprocket 55. is driven by chain 58 engagingsprocket 5 7 thereon,

said] chain being, in turn, driven by the sprocket 86 on the jcounte'rshaft 35, whlch is intermittently operated by the timing gear consisting 'ofthehelical driven gear 35 and the driving gear 34, one-half of the periphery -ofwhich is provided with helical teeth and the other half with a circumferential rib or single tooth, as hereinbefore explained, this arrangement constituting atiming gear for intermittently. driving the sprocket 55 1 through one complete revolution and this particulargeartrain is so proportionedthat the speed of the chain 62 isthe sameas that of the discharge or packing belt 23. The helical teethon the'periphery of gear Share interrupted at each 120 of the circumference by a transverse channel, which'is engaged by 1 the ribor peripheral tooth on the gear 34, so

that said gear 35 makes three start-stop movements in each complete revolution and,

as the ratiocof the sprockets 36 and 57 is three to. one,a complete revolution of the sprockets 57 and 55 is effected for each start-stop movement of the shaft 35, which corresponds to a complete revolution of the shaft 32 and a complete revolution of'the' knife shaft Secured to the upper frame member and inalignment with the longitudinal axis of the slottedhead 45 is a discharge member comprising atuhular section provided with' a slot 7Ii'aligning with the correspond ing'slot in the head 45-vto permit ofithe shanksfiofthe pusher arms 63, the

the passage ly engaging the tubular member 70 is a tubular extension 72 provided with a longrtudinal slot 73 aligning with slot 71 and also having aslot 74 substantially diametrically opposite the slot 73 to provide a certain amount of spring tension in the outer end of the member 72, which end is tapered or re- (duced to a small extent, so that the interior diameter of said tubular member at the outer end is somewhat less than the diameter of the cut slices and, as the latter are forced into the tubular end by the pusher arms, the slices will'be forced into facial abutment and the sliced articlewill be delivered to the discharge conveyor or packing belt 23 in substantially the same form in whichit was delivered to the machine, that is to say, the sliced articlewill hereceived on the packing belt with all of the slices in upright abutting relation, so that the entire sliced article may be readily packed in suitable containers.

On shaft 15 ismounted sprocket 8O driving through chain 81" to sprocket 82 mounted on' shaft 83. Onshaft is mounted-head Figs. 1 and 4, the feed conveyor'86 delivers the trimmed'articles, suchaspineapples or the like, to a trough 46-mounted in axial alignment with the tubular head 45, the said articles being successively engaged by the pusherarms 63 of the feed chain 62, 'as said articles aredisengaged from vthe feed conveyor, the relation of theparts being more particularly illustratedin Fig, 4. Each ar- 5 ticle,,as it is engaged by'a pusher arm 63, is advanced into the slotted head 45 and, when the engaging pusher arm 63 reaches the forward end of the head,'the movement of the feed chain 62 is arrested by the peripheral single toothed section of the gear 34 passing into mesh with the spiral gear 35, thereby stopping the rotation of shaft 35,rwhichi is 7 connected to the drive shaft'of the feed chain 62, as hereinbefore explained, The article to be sliced is, thereore, held stationary in the head and, while so held, theknives carried by the rotary cutter 44 traverse the slots int-he head 45 and cut the article into uni form slices, after which the knives pass out of engagement with the slotsand the helical teeth on gear'34pass intomesh with spiral gear'35 and the latteragain resumes its function of'driving the feed chain 62 foradistance equal to one complete revolution of sprocket 55 or the space between successive pusher arms 63. The renewed movement of the feed chain 62 causes-the pusher arm in contact with theslices tomove the latter out of the head into the'tubular discharge memiloer and, by reason of the resistance of the tapered outer end of the discharge member,

I cial abutment to the conveyor,

l forces the slicesinto facial engageme t, so that the slices will be delivered onto the conveyor belt 23 in compact form and may be taken from the belt in such form and palcked in suitable containers.

It will be noted that the speed of the gfeed conveyor 86 is regulated to agree with the speed of the discharge conveyor or padking belt 23 and also with the intermittent speed of the feedchain 62, so that the travel of the articles through th machine will be properly timed and this timing, when correlated with the tubular discharge member with its tapered and resilient outer end, insures the delivery of each sliced article in compact form with the slices in facial abutment, so that the entire article may be delivered directly to the cans or sim'lar containers for subsequent processing.

Preferably, the machine is associated with the trimming table where the pineapples or other articles to be sliced are inspected and prepared for slicing. This trimming table consists principally of two conveyors one, a slow moving belt which carriesthe sized pineapples to the trimmers the other, a chain conveyor, 86, with flights, as described above, which carries the trimmed pineapples to the slicing machine. provided with a second sprocket 91, which is disks will be discharged in To this end, shaft 15 is driving the feed chain and conveyor belt at the same rate of speed. 4. A slicing machine including means for cutting fruit and the like into disks, means for moving the articles through and beyond the cutting means, and a tubular discharge member traversed by the moving means an having a contracted end imposing resistance to the movement of the disks; whereby said facially abutting series.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

MARSHALL c. HJELTE.

engaged by chain 92 driving a relatively large sprocket 90 fast to a sleeve 93 loosely mounted on theshaft 83, to which sleeve is secured a driving pulley 94:, which operates the feed belt of the trimming table.

What I claim is: 7 1. A slicing machine including a slotted tubular head, a rotary cutter having knives traversing the slots in the head, a feed chain having lateral arms adapted to traverse said head longitudinally, and a resilient outwardly tapering tubular discharge member in alignment with said head traversed by said arms and adapted to deliver the slices in facially abutting series.

2. A slicing machine including a slotted tubular head, a rotary cutter having knives traversing the slots in the head, a feed chain having lateral arms adapted to traverse said head longitudinally, a conveyor belt adj acent the end of the head, and a resilient tubular discharge member interposed between the head and the conveyor and traversed by said arms to deliver the slices in parallel facial abutment to the conveyor. V

3. A slicing machine including a slotted tubular head, a rotary cutter having knives traversing the having lateral arms adapted to traverse said head longitudinally, a conveyor belt adj acent the endof the head, a resilient tubular discharge member interposed between the head and the conveyor and traversed by said arms to deliver the slices in parallel faand means for slots in the head, a feed chain 

